"It's a what?"

Photograph by Lance Hidy. Copyright 2018

"A wingless artificial fly with a soft, translucent body of fur or wool which blends with the undercolor of the tying silk when wet, utilizing soft hackle fibers easily activated by the currents to give the effect of an insect alive in the water, and strategically cast diagonally upstream or across for the trout to take just below or within a few inches of the surface film." ​ -The Art of Tying The Wet Fly and Fishing The Flymph; J.E. Leisenring, V.S. Hidy, 1971.

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It is not a nymph. It is not a fly (dry fly). It is a "Flymph" and the word was coined by Vernon S. (Pete) Hidy to describe that stage of an insect's life when the nymph leaves the rather comfortable surroundings of the stream bed and swims up through the water column to hatch into the dun on the way to adulthood. Today you might know it better as the emerger stage. The term "flymph" didn't quite last the sands of time in describing a stage of an aquatic insect's life cycle but there is more to this story.

The word "Flymph" is also used to describe a specific type of wingless wet fly; the type of wingless wet fly friends and fishing companions James Leisenring and Pete Hidy constructed. Most wingless wet flies are tied and fished to represent the emerging stage of an aquatic insect. A few can be fished to mimic spinners, the last stage of an aquatic insect's life cycle. The same is true for flymphs. Take a closer look at the quote above from the "The Art of Tying the Wet Fly and Fishing the Flymph." Part I of the book was written by Pete Hidy as told by James Leisenring. Part II of the book was added in a second edition and written by Pete Hidy. Part II opens with the quote above and is titled "Some New Definitions". Hidy defines a "Flymph" and then continues to define "Flymph Fishing" which will be covered in another section of this website.

Coming soon...we'll break down Hidy's definition and how it fits in today, almost 50 years later.